Star Windows 7 Beta Released to general Public, Servers Hammered
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th Jan 2009 20:05 UTC
Windows As promised, Microsoft has released the beta to Windows 7 to the general public a few hours ago. Don't get your hopes up yet, though, as Microsoft's servers are completely hammered right now - which isn't too hard to imagine, seeing the 2.5 million download limit Microsoft imposed. This probably led to everyone rushing to Microsoft's servers to get their hands on the beta, clogging the servers (2.5m times a 3GB image file, do the math). You will have to be patient, and hope for the best if you want the beta and its product key. The beta will expire August 1st, 2009.
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No Way To Distribute Software
by ITPr0 on Fri 9th Jan 2009 21:01 UTC
ITPr0
Member since:
2009-01-09

What did Microsoft expect to happen? Of course the servers are being hammered. Once MicrosoftFT announced they would cap the activation codes at 2.5M, it created this feeding frenzy so that only those who have nothing to do all day but hit their browser "refresh" button constantly will be able to get at it.

This has been nothing but a big publicity campaign. Everyone knows that this is no way to distribute software to IT professionals for the purpose of testing. It's like throwing money into a crowd from the back of a moving truck. "What's the matter? Didn't you get yours?" Of course not. This is ridiculous. There are many other ways that Microsoft could have chosen to distribute this in an orderly manner. They chose this way because they knew it would create the most attention and make the news.

Reply Bookmark Score: 1

biljm Member since:
2009-01-09

Okay, so Microsoft will be getting a lot of publicity for this. And whether they expected it or not, their servers got hammered. They get publicity, and 2.5 million people get a Windows 7 Beta copy. Why exactly are you complaining?

Edited 2009-01-09 21:30 UTC

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

como Member since:
2006-11-20

> those who have nothing to do all day but hit their browser "refresh" button constantly will be able to get at it.

Damn, you right! I'm at work and I'm refreshing the browser window every five minutes to see if the beta is out for download.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 0

darknexus Member since:
2008-07-15

I do have to wonder what the point of the download cap is anyway, as I think you're exactly right. That creates a rush, and for no apparent purpose. It sort of reminds me of the Windows XP EOL situation, they keep extending it, little by little. I wouldn't put it past them to do the same with this download limit.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1